This recipe with a toponymic name, as if the Rhode Island yacht-clubbers’ take on a Manhattan, appears in a 2:1 ratio in Straub 1913 (where absinthe is used instead of anisette), which translates, as usual, to a slightly less tipsy 3:2 ratio when borrowed by JM in 1916. The vermouth, anisette, and olive recall the Montana Club listed a few entries above on the same page, but the effect with sweet vermouth and rye is decidedly different. Both authors likely got the recipe from the old Waldorf manual, which finds expression in the Old Waldorf Bar Days (1931). There we see first the important note “No Bitters.” This was to prevent the bartender from automatically adding the typical bitters to a drink which had every sign of being a cocktail, which everyone knew meant liquor, sweetener, bitters, and dilution. This delves back into the pre-cocktail Sling. Here the anisette (is this an indication that JM is more faithful to the original?) serves the purpose of bitters, though. Incidentally, the Old Waldorf also specifies straining the drink onto the olive, not dropping the latter in after. I include the Straub version with absinthe for comparison:
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